Pain Management

Patients: please visit the Pain Management website to learn more about our patient services and to make an appointment.

The Division of Pain Management delivers comprehensive, multidisciplinary care for individuals with acute, chronic and cancer-related pain in both inpatient and outpatient settings.

Our faculty are dual board-certified in anesthesiology and pain medicine, and many serve in leadership roles with national pain management societies. Academically, the division leads one of the largest and most advanced training programs for residents and fellows in the field of pain management and is involved in the latest research trials.

Clinical

Our expert team collaborates to create personalized treatment plans for each patient focused on accelerating recovery, improving function, reducing pain and enhancing well-being. Distinct features of this division are specific clinical focus on neuromodulation; the center for myofascial pain including Ehlers Danlos Syndrome; and minimally invasive spinal stenosis treatments.

We provide treatment at three state-of-the-art outpatient locations in Manhattan:

Och Spine at NewYork-Presbyterian at the Weill Cornell Medicine Center for Comprehensive Spine Care
Pain Management - Lower Manhattan
Och Spine at NewYork-Presbyterian/The Spiral

At our Och Spine locations, there is a particular focus on collaborative care. At the newest location, Och Spine at NewYork-Presbyterian/The Spiral, five academic departments contribute to the care of our spine patient population: anesthesiology, neurosurgery/orthopedic surgery, neurology, radiology, and physical medicine and rehabilitation. A unique feature of this clinic is the high volume of “one-stop” multidisciplinary visits and same-day procedures.

For hospitalized patients, the division provides consultative and interventional care for a variety of conditions including management of cancer pain, and collaboration with palliative care and addiction medicine. We perform advanced procedures daily on inpatients to reduce pain and transition to outpatient care. We facilitate preoperative and postoperative care for chronic pain patients through our recuperative pain service.

Faculty are involved in innovative treatments:

Botox injections and other headache treatment
Comprehensive muscle pain program
Dorsal root ganglion stimulation
Intrathecal pump/targeted drug delivery
Joint injections, including, but not limited to, hip, knee and shoulder
Kyphoplasty
Minimally invasive lumbar decompression
Nerve blocks
Peripheral nerve stimulation
Radiofrequency ablation for spine and peripheral joints including cooled radiofrequency ablation
Spinal cord stimulation
Spine injections, including epidurals and facet blocks
Trigger point injections
Interspinous spacers
Basivertebral nerve ablation
Virtual Reality treatment

Education

Residency Education
We provide residents with clinical experience in the anesthetic treatment of pain management patients. This experience is supplemented by formal and informal didactics, instruction and guided independent study. This training includes preoperative evaluation, intraoperative management and postoperative care utilizing the most current medical knowledge pertinent to each case. Residents have close experience with faculty in a high volume of clinics and procedures and participate in virtual reality training. Our residents develop proficiency in caring for patients with complicated medical problems in a compassionate manner.

Tri-Institutional Pain Fellowship. One of the largest and most known in the country, our fellowship includes many advanced procedures and a procedural simulation program that is part of a larger education research initiative. Faculty are often invited speakers at national meetings and sit on many pain society boards. The fellowship is also one of six national programs leading the way in spinal stenosis treatment procedures including interspinous spacers and minimally invasive lumbar decompression procedures. The program leads the country in its cancer pain curriculum including one of the largest volumes of annual intrathecal pump implants.

Learn more about the Tri-Institutional Pain Fellowship.

Research

Members of the pain division conduct clinical trials in spinal cord stimulation, interspinous spacers, and virtual reality for pain relief and as a teaching tool. There is an ongoing development of pain and spine related outcomes databases that improve clinical care and foster research opportunities. Faculty are well published on interventional and medication-based treatments.

Publications by Department of Anesthesiology faculty